Course: Beautiful all around and included a canyon, gushing river, open fields and farmland. Gradual decline of 1200 feet with some flats and a small bit of incline.
Terrain: Road with a section of asphault trails.
Recomendation: Great for a first time marathoner like me. Also great for a PR or to qualify for Boston. Just make sure to prepare for the downhills by including quad strengthening workouts. I can still feel it in my quads a couple days after.
I got up in the wee early hours of the morning and ate a slice of toast with peanut butter and ate a banana. Met up with some friends from BBC who were also running the marathon. Loaded the bus at 5 a.m. and got to the start of the race about prior to gun time. We all huddled around fire pits dressed in our layers anticipating what the day would bring.
I had my perpetuem, gel and endurolytes all ready to go. I don't think I ate enough gel however as I still had some left at the finish. I ran the first mile a little too fast but slowed things down and was on course for the 8 miles. Everything felt great and my legs were fresh and I realized the taper came together pretty well. I did not experience any foot pain like I had worried about.
Then around mile 8, I experienced some GI issues and had to slow down for fear of losing it. Found a porta john at mile 10 with a long line. I was disappointed I had to stop because I was in a groove, was right on pace and felt great. I lost a few minutes there. I spent the next few miles trying to make up for lost time but to no avail. I hit the half way mark at 2:29...7 minutes longer than my half PR and 6 minutes more than target time. I was told that I would experience almost every emotion imaginable during the marathon and at that moment I felt discouraged. My heart and my legs were able to keep up, why couldn't my stomach? I saw my husband, father and grandparents cheering for me just past the 13.1 mile marker and they took the pic of me running. I felt great and was enjoying the flat section because I knew a little bit of uphill and lots of downhill would be coming.
At around mile 15, I started having GI issues, but it temporarily went away. I saw my cousin Brittney at one of the aid stations located by Pineview Dam and right before entering the Ogden Canyon. It was so fun to see her as she handed me my water and I took some electrolytes. The canyon came into view and as I saw the downhill portion I was ready to tackle it and try to gain time advantage.
Almost immediately the GI issues hit full force and I hurled over it hurt so bad. I stood there for a few minutes wasting so much time trying to decide how to handle this. I finally realized I would not be able to make it to the next portajohn without walking the entire way so I took care of that issue and then off I went again. I started to feel my quads at this point and my ankles felt offbeat as well. I was really surprised my foot was holding up...almost like it hadn't been injured 3 weeks prior. When I started along the Ogden River Parkway, my glutes and hamstrings were tight so I decided to stretch them out.
I was so exstatic when I left the parkway and started the final stretch in the city. I had mixed emotions as I saw the finish line and ran towards it. I was hurting but I worked hard to pick up the pace a little and to have some sort of smile on my face as I crossed the finish line. When I saw the clock was over 5 hours (which I figured would be) I was disappointed. My first thought was I HAVE to do this next year to redeem myself. My training runs went better than this did and the course was so much harder than this one.
I saw my family and gave them a hug and then proceeded through the finishing chute to get my medal and some ice. In the finishers area, I saw down, took ibuprofin, put ice around my legs, got some Jamba Juice and bread from Leslie and relaxed. Leslie had a hard time as well during the last few miles as she was nausious but was able to qualify for Boston which is a HUGE accomplishment in the running world. Heidi ran a great race as well, finishing at 4:24 I believe and another Heidi from BBC ran the half in well under 2 hours. I think that's a 9 minute mile or just under.
Despite my crummy abdominal issues, I did have fun.
I met and talked to a few people on the course and got to experience different people and their ways of pushing it through the end. One guy was singing at the top of his lungs to his IPOD. I wonder how he managed that? Another guy was pep talking and praising himself. It was entertaining.
My chip time was 5:04 and some change. Had I not lost 18 minutes of complete standstill, it would have put me at 4:46. I'm counting the 5:04 as my official time, but I plugged in my 4:46 time to the McMillan Running Calculator and the training paces it came up with was in line with what I was able to run my paces training for this. So I KNOW a 4:40+ marathon was possible had the conditions been ideal.
Oh and in case you were wondering, one of the aid stations handed out lei's (SP?) so that's why I had one around my neck at the finish!
Ogden here we come next year!
